Of Dragons and Captains
by Tarja the wind witch
Summary: Laurence and Temeraire meet a stranded Dany and Drogon, much to their astonishment. Spoilers for ADWD and Tongues of Serpents.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the original ASOIAF characters or of the original Temeraire characters. They belong to GRRM and Naomi Novik respectively.  
><strong>

**Short ficlet starring Laurence and Temeraire (quite bemused) on one side and Dany and Drogon on the other.**

**Heavy spoilers for ADWD!**

**Spoilers for Tongues of Serpents.  
><strong>

**Flame me all you want, I'm fireproof.**

**Enjoy!**

**P.S. This fic has already appeared on the Valyrian Forged subcommunity of Westeros Sorting LJ community. Yep, sereq ieh dashret is me.**

Temeraire eyed the newcomer with a mixture of aggravation and sympathy.  
>He was a vicious thing, that Drogon, wild and uneducated, with half-mad red eyes and a horrible temper.<br>The fact that he was rather big, and by the way he ate it was clear he will be growing more, and a firebreather to boot, did nothing to ease things up.  
>If anything, he was even worse than Iskierka.<p>

It had taken a while to convince him that they would do no harm to his rider, but now, finally pacified, he was chewing messily at a half-charred sheep and talking with his mouth full.  
>"Sheep's good, but I'd rather have a horse any day. – he said in a crude form of dragon-tongue – Horsemeat makes you stronger, it is known. You should tell your father to give some to Mother."<br>Temeraire barely refrained from asking "By whom it is known?".  
>He already knew that the answer would be unsatisfactorily.<br>Mother, as he called his rider, was a blond girl, who was currently eating a sheep's haunch as if she was starving, which in fact she was.  
>"She is not really your mother, you know." he said quietly.<br>The youngster eyed him angrily. "She is, she hatched us on Fathers' pyre." he spat. "Father was a great khal, that he was, and Mother was khaleesi and now she is queen, Mother of dragons and freed-slaves."  
>Temeraire bristled at the thought of slavery. "Are there any slavers in the place where you come from?"<br>Drogon's red eyes gleamed with self-satisfaction. "Not many more." he said and let loose a small lick of flame.  
>Temeraire inwardly shivered.<p>

Lawrence was triyng very hard not to stare too much at the foreign Capitan.  
>When they met her, she had been half-naked and smeared with dried blood and soot, but still a sight for sore eyes.<br>Now, clad in Ensign Roland's spare clothes, her singularly light hair combed and washed, she looked almost civil, if one ignored the way she was tearing into her meal. "You must have been very hungry." he commented.  
>The girl quaffed a cup of water and cleaned her mouth on a napkin.<br>"Very much so. Drogon tried to hunt for me, but he's… a bit inconsiderate." she said, looking towards the dragons.  
>Her beast was fearsome and fearless, a firebreather that will probably attain heavyweight size and yet she spoke of him as if he was her child and rode him without a harness.<p>

"Are they talking?" she inquired.  
>Lawrence nodded. "Some kind of dragon language, as far as I can tell. I can't speak it, but some of my officers know a smattering of words." he explained.<br>The girl sighed. "I wish I knew it, it would make things much easier. It sounds really difficult, though… You're lucky your dragon can speak your language."  
>"Temeraire speaks more languages than me, my lady." Lawrence replied.<br>The girl gave him a quizzical look and returned to her meal.  
>"I'll learn it, whatever it takes and I'll ride back to my other children." she declared fiercely<br>Lawrence was perplexed by her declaration.  
>She looked no older than his younger sister. "How many children do you have, my lady?" he asked politely.<br>The girl smiled almost ferociously. "Other two dragons and an army of freedmen, under siege of an army of slavers." she replied, deadly serious.  
>"Teach me how to control Drogon, Ser Laurence, - she entreated – so that I can save my children."<br>How could he refuse such an offer?


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the original ASOIAF characters or of the original Temeraire characters. They belong to GRRM and Naomi Novik respectively.  
><strong>

**Short ficlet starring Laurence and Temeraire (quite bemused) on one side and Dany and Drogon on the other, plus other side characters from Temeraire  
><strong>

**Heavy spoilers for ADWD!**

**Spoilers for Tongues of Serpents.**

**Squicky mentions of westerosi dragons' reproductive habits. I know that the canon explanation is hermafroditism, but this sounded much more fun.  
><strong>

**Flame me all you want, I'm fireproof.**

**Enjoy!**

**P.S. This fic has already appeared on the Valyrian Forged subcommunity of Westeros Sorting LJ community. Yep, sereq ieh dashret is me.**

**P.P.S Yep, I'm cleaning the cellar before withdrawing.**

* * *

><p>Drogon's Captain was nothing but determined, Temeraire had to admit it.<br>Between himself and Demane, they were having a hard time teaching her dragon-tongue, which they barely knew themselves, so it as all a bit of a guesswork.  
>She sounded awfully silly trying to whistle and hiss and click and most of the time Drogon just looked at her rather quizzically, tilting his horned head and snorting smoke, uncomprehending, but, when he understood he was almost comical in his elation and in his efforts of making himself understood in the same way.<br>He was far from stupid, even if he was terribly impulsive and rash, and she was very bright, but they could still hold only the simplest of conversations.  
>Drogon's Captain, however, was quite proud of their progress in this area and from better understanding came also a somewhat better performance in routine training exercises.<p>

After convincing him to wear a harness (which took days of persuasion and could only be achieved by stressing its importance for his Captain's safety) him and Laurence had taken to training Drogon and Kulingile together, thinking that the example of a companion of the same age group, more or less, could help the newcomer and to steer him clear of Iskierka, who had was a bit too keen on the newcomer and definitely a bad example.  
>Temerarire felt almost jealous.<p>

In the beginning, they had also included Cesar in the training scheme, but after the first time a very exacerbated Drogon tried to blast the little insolent pest to oblivion, it was decided to leave him out.  
>Even if he didn't understand a word of it, the firebreather had managed to extract a lot of meaning from the tone and reactions of Cesar's disparaging comments about his "Mother".<p>

As anticipated, Drogon was even harder to train than Iskierka had been: he hated formation work and was quite likely to wander off to hunt, despite his Captain's most vehement protests.  
>She had lungs of brass, to be sure, and a choice selection of curses in various languages to make even a sailor blush.<p>

After a day of hard work, Temeraire felt almost sick with fatigue and happily sank to the ground of his clearing, ready to fall asleep without even needing Laurence to read him anything.  
>Obviously, his peace would not last long and Drogon promptly landed beside him.<br>"I miss my siblings. Don't want to sleep alone." he declared defiantly, as if challenging Temeraire to say anything, but he just nodded and turned to sleep.  
>"Do you like those boring patrol flights?" the youngster asked a second later.<br>Temeraire snorted, irritated. "No, as a fact I don't. – he replied, ruffle bristling – But they are necessary. What if the enemy's aerial forces sneak upon your positions? You have to patrol."

Drogon laughed and a plume of flame snorted from his nostrils as he almost doubled up in mirth.  
>"What are you laughing at?" Temeraire growled, now decidedly angry at being kept awake when he wanted nothing better than to sleep and being mocked to boot.<br>It took a few seconds more for Drogon to stop laughing.  
>"There are no 'enemy aerial forces', Temrer. There is only me and my brothers Viseryon and Rhaegal. We are the only ones." he replied.<br>Temeraire gaped. "The only… the only dragons in your world. Only the three of you?" he stammered, dismayed. It must be terrible.

Drogon nodded solemnly.  
>"What happened to all the others?" he asked, aghast.<br>"They died, it is known. – the youngster replied calmly – There were many before us, Balerion the Black Dread and his brothers Vhagar and Meraxes, Silverwing and her mate, Syrax, the Last One in the Dragonpit, all companions of the Westerosi khals, and many more before them, in Valyria. All dead."  
>"This is… terrible." Temeraire commented. "And the three of you are all males. You won't be able to…" he felt like he couldn't continue the sentence.<br>"Mate, you mean? – Drogon asked, smirking – That's actually fun, very fun." he commented appreciatively.  
>Temeraire looked a question to him. How did he know?<br>Despite looking like an apparition from hell, Drogon managed to look quite sheepish. "Iskierka is very insistent…"  
>Temeraire hung his head in shame. He should have imagined it. That was why she had stopped harassing him about it, which had been a huge relief, but still he couldn't help but feel a bit peeved by the fact that she had so eagerly replaced him.<p>

"You alright?" Drogon asked.  
>Temeraire nodded, lying. "Well, you won't be able to mate in your world, without females." he expounded.<br>Drogon snorted a bit of smoke. "Not a problem. We can change, if needed, to lay eggs."  
>"Eeeh? What?" Temeraire exclaimed, completely incredulous and embarrassed.<br>Drogon tilted his head in a familiar gesture of perplexity. "The smallest in the pack become females and lay eggs. Probably it will be Viseryon, for us. Maybe both him and Rhaegal. Isn't it so here?" he asked candidly.  
>He frowned for a second and added. "Cezar is the smallest, I guess she is female as well, but I won't mate with her, she's nasty."<p>

Temeraire sighed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to sleep for long hours to come.  
>It would be a very, very long conversation.<p> 


End file.
